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

I´m doing great

Dear Family and Friends,

Question of the week: Can you go blind from smoking marijuana for too many years and too much quantity?  Because I think that may have happened to our investigator... Let me explain

So remember Gladys, our only investigator on date for baptism?  Well we didn´t feel comfortable going to her house again to teach so we found a member house to take her too.  Partly because her house was mysteriously missing all the lights...  So we go last sunday and she wasn´t home anyway.  whew, we´re free.  So then we go on wednesday morning to try and set up an appointment with her at the member´s house.  We´re setting it up and I think the creepy son realized what we were trying to do and came out and said that his mom had time right then for a lesson.  Ok... well we went in because what can happen in the morning right?  Oh it was awful.  All of a sudden his friend comes out from the back room, we´re trying to have a lesson but no words are coming out, the son turns on this awful music with no words, shows us his tattoos (he´s a tattoo artist and has a huge virgen on his chest that he did himself) and then the son and the friend start smoking weed in the back.  We cut the lesson right then and asked if we could end with a prayer.  She´s saying the prayer and during it she asks to have the power to stop smoking (but we don´t think it´s cigarettes).  We ended the prayer for her and booked it out of there but not fast enough to escape the kiss from the son.  It was the worst feeling but hey!  It´s a story right.  Needless to say, she´s just not all there and we think our efforts would be best spent somewhere else.

Other than that we found 3 awesome new investigators this week.  One is the pareja of a less active family and they said they were going to church but didn´t come which was sad but next week they´re coming for sure!  And then the other one is a cute mom and her husband (who wasn´t there for the first lesson) is also really nice.  We see some good potential in them.  And the last one we found last night while contacting.  Her names Verónica and she´s a single mom of one.  One of her good friend´s LDS and she loves the church.  Took the lessons about 9 years ago but said it wasn´t her time.  So now we´re praying that it´s her time.

We also had a noche de hogar at the church this week.  Not very many people came which was disappointing but it was super fun .

Also, the whole ward is mad at the bishop and the bishop confronted everyone about it yesterday in the last hour.  It was kind of uncomfortable but we couldn´t do anything about it.  So in the end we were kind of grateful we didn´t have investigators at church.

That was our week.  Mom, I haven´t been sick very much for months now and it´s been awesome.  But I did get a bad cold on saturday and it´s still here.  But it´s fine, it happens all the time and it doesn´t affect the work that much.

The picture´s from our first walmart adventure like 2 months ago. Go world cup! We just can´t win the next one because then we´d be going agaisnt argentina and all the missionaries from the states would be in danger.  But really.

Love you all!

Hermana Borup

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