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

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

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.

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

A Week of Contacting

Dear family and friends,

Well another week has gone by.  I can´t believe how fast the time goes by.  Pday happens and then all of a sudden you´re at weekly planning and then the week is basically over.  There isn´t enough time in the days to get everything done!  Especially since we have the lovely siesta.  We don´t even go out working until 5!  And mornings are hard because everyone has things to do so we usually end up contacting all morning.  Yep, so this week was a lot of contacting.  And we didn´t really find anyone that good.  But we did talk to 3 atheist kids for a while.  It broke my heart.  In Spain, when the kids just drank and wanted to have fun my attitude was, "well that´s dumb but there´s nothing I can do about it."  Here it´s like "what are you doing!? You´re throwing your lives away and you have so much to live for!  Getting drunk and doing drugs every day is not a life.  It doesn´t bring happiness."  I just want to kick them and their parents for not being there to parent them.  That´s why this gospel is so important.  Of course they´re going to do those things when they don´t have an eternal perspective.  Or any sort of perspective.  

Sorry about my tangent there.  So this week we had transfers and we spent a good part of Wednesday in the terminal.  I met our new zone leader and he´s also going to be working in our ward for us.  He´s pretty cool and I think he will help this ward out a lot!  I´m excited.  And then Hermana Mueller left, which made me super sad, and Hermana Sanchez came.  She´s super quiet.  I don´t think I´ve heard her say more than 10 words.  She´s from Peru and she´s super little.  Nice, but the pench isn´t the same.

Saturday afternoon we just really needed a lesson.  We had been contacting all week and so we were desperately trying to find someone who would let us in.  We stopped by a former investigator, Beatriz and she still wants to get baptized during holy week.  But it´s still hard to teach her because she talks so much.  But we taught a little and then on Sunday she came!!!  I was not expecting it!  Her nephew is a strong member and so he was there and showed her around and even came to our class with her and convinced her to stay for sacrament!  And she stayed!  And his daughters stole her heart.  That little act shows me that she actually can be ready for baptism by that date.  I´m super excited for her because for so long she´s felt alone and you could tell at church she felt like part of a family.  

Jonathan´s also doing really well.  We taught the law of chastity this week so they have to make some hard decisions now.  Hopefully they can make them!  Please pray for him and Andrea!  

So yep, that was basically the week.  Hope you all are great!

Hermana Borup