Long Week

Hi everybody! hows it going.  I cant believe the picture of the van! Its unreal!  You put a completely new engine in it? that's crazy. But it looks as good as new. You guys are finally going to New York for the marathon?  Have fun! and send me some pics.  I like pictures.  BYU! taking care of business! sounds like they are doing really well this year.  Figures... they decide to play when im out of the country.  Well i probably should talk about my week.

Well you know how we thought it doesn't get hot.... Haha. It does.  And you know how we were wondering how bad the fleas could be.... bad.  My legs are covered in bites.  I hate those little devils.  But so far they haven't moved to the rest of my body.  

Well this week our land lady asked us to do something weird.  She has a kitten that she rescued from the streets and that still needs to be fed by a bottle, and she said that we needed to take care of it for a day.  We couldn't really say no.  So this is a picture of me feeding it.

 

It was a weird week.  And a really hard one. We kept getting shut down.  We are trying really hard to find new people to teach but so far it has been completely unfruitful ( that's a word right?). But we did have success with the less active members this week. it was awesome.  We taught about 15 lessons with new members that we found this week.  

Contacting new people is fun.  My personal favorite is when old ladies who look through the curtains and see us and instantly their face turns super sour and they shake their finger at us.  At least answer the door. i mean come on.  Or the people who open the door expecting some friend or family and then see us and then immediately slam the door. It is fun though and we have found a couple nice people who might progress.  

Well that is all from me this week.  I need to write president now.  Love you guys a ton.  

Love,

Elder Steamer Lane Borup

This Week

Well how is every one doing? It sounds like you are doing good.  I dont get the joke dad. So i dont think the primary kids will either. And they need to come to church.

Well this week has been awesome.  well not really... until Saturday night it was one of the worst weeks ever.  We worked a ton but there was absolutely no results. Until Saturday that is.  Sat we had a couple of citas set up,  They turned out to be awesome!  all of them were with less active members.  the next day everyone we visited the night before, and more, were in sacrament meeting! It was awesome!  We had a ton of people to talk to after because we had never met them.  It was amazing.  We now have a new investigator as well. His name is Oscar.  He is a really cool guy whose wife is a returned missionary so he knows a ton about what we teach but i know there is something that we can teach him that will convert him.  

This week i have a ton of pics for you guys. Ill try to explain all of them as well as i canThis is only half of the sandwich that we had for lunch one day at a members house.  It is called a churazco it has grilled stake, avocado, tomato, mayo, and lettuce.  It is amazing!

I think i broke the computer because it wont let me send anymore pictures...  Sorry mom i took a picture with a normal face and everything.   Oh well ill just send them next week.  

Being a missionary is awesome.  I love it so much. This is the greatest thing i have ever done.  It is also one of the funnest.  I cant really explain why it is fun but i know that it is.  As you can tell by my face, as pictured above i am content.  Have a good week.  Talk to you next week.

Love, 

Elder Paco

Answering Questions

What do you do on Pday?  Your letters come early in the morning and you seemed rushed.
Well the reasson i am so rushed is that we only have 45 min to email family.  and 15 to email our mission pres.  It is hard for someone who types 10 words per min.  But besides that we normaly go to the church building and play ping pong with the other elders in our district. then go home and make lunch. 

Are the members feeding you every lunch?
Yes! it is amazing.  The church is super stong in valdivia.  The only day we have to cook is p day.  Sometimes its hard though because some members get offended because i dont eat very much.  Turns our most missionaries have the reputation of being complete animals when it comes to food.

Are you becoming less intimidated and speaking more often?  And have you given a talk in church?
I getting more comfortable every day but it is still really hard...  Havent given a talk yet but i think i probably will have to soon.

What is your ward/branch like?
Our ward is amazing.  we have a huge area called the bosque where all of the rich people live and then a place called the Pablo Neruda where all of the extremely poor people live.  There is quite a difference.

Whitney wants to know how nerdy is your companion?
Not quite as nerdy as me. But extremely nerdy.  We get along great.

Does it rain every day?  And how are your shoes holding up?  Have you worn your boots yet?  Does your backpack work well?

It rains almost every day.  but i think that will stop now that summer is coming along.  My shoes are awesome. mission shoe is a little uncomfortable but that is why i asked for insoles.  boots are great ive worn them a couple of times now and they are by far the most comfortable shoes i have.

How many active investigators do you have right now? What is their names so we can pray for them?

We have one real investigators as of today. But we also have a guy who we have taught once that sounds interested.  His name is Omar. Our other is Victoria. She is awesome but is scared to make changes in her life.

What is your area like? Is it hilly or flat? Is it poor or richer? (i always liked poor areas).
There are a few hills but for the most part flat.  It is rich besides one little poblacion named pablo neruda that we aren't aloud to go in at night.  for the most part it is just huge.

What's your biggest challenge right now? (so we can pray for you)

Finding people.  We knock doors a ton and most of the people have heard of us and don't want anything to do with us.  It's hard.  that would be nice if you prayed for me.

Well its been nice talking to you.  that was a ton of typing and now I'm going to go take a nap.....

Elder Paco Lane Borup

Email Conversation 10-14-13

(Note from Dad: as soon as I emailed this morning he noticed I was still on line. We had this conversation.)

Elder Borup: hey you still online?

Dad: yes, are you?

Weston: Si

Dad: this is sort of weird isn't it? How’s things in Valdivia? What do you think about my stalking techniques?

Elder Borup: Valdivia is great!  So you can see my entire sector?

Dad: Yes, Are you the only missionaries in the Ward?

Elder Borup: yep

Dad: What street do you live on? (so I can look it up on Google Earth)

Elder Borup: Huilahue, in a little cabaña behind the house of Obispo

Dad: give me a close by street. is Obispo = Bishop?

Elder Borup: Yep.  Pedro Montt and Circumvalacion. we are at the verry bottom of the ward

Dad: I can look up your bishops address in the directory.

Elder Borup: our bishop just got made 1st counselor in the stake presidency, so he might not be listed as bishop any more.  His name is Chacon

Dad: I can find him that way then. Do you have a new Bishop then? Is he all about missionary work? IF not convert him. or I'll talk to him.

Elder Borup: yeah he loves missionary work

Dad: How's your training going?

Elder Borup: Well.  It’s hard when the language is still coming but I’m feeling better about it everyday.

Dad: Try to be bold and talk to everyone you meet. You'll get better at the language and you'll find people that way.

Elder Borup: yeah that is what I’m finding out

Dad: So are you doing something fun today?

Elder Borup: We are going to the church building to play ping pong

Dad: Oh good. GO dominate!!!! Slam one for me. I know you have a lot to do. I better let you get to it. Work hard and talk to everyone, you have the best message in the world to share. There is a living prophet of God and His church is on the Earth.

Elder Borup: Bye dad, I love you.  thanks for being such a good example for me.

Dad: Bye! I love you to. You're a great son. I couldn't have a better one.

Fun With the Niños

HELLO my friends.  how are you?  I hope you are all doing well.  Sounds like you are.  Way to go Mckenzie that is really impressive, same to mom and dad.  Well this week has been a real blur.  I am struggling to remember all of the things we did this week.... Uhhhh... Well I´ll tell you the highlights.

Me and my companion decided this week that we need to be more Chilean.  Haha. It has been fun to try.  We have made a huge group of new friends, the average age of them is probably around 8, but they are really nice and don't make fun of us.  Our new group of friends taught us how to use Trompos, these awesome top things that you have to throw in the air with your fingers attached to a string that is wrapped around the top, and then whip your hand back to spin it.  It spins way fast and then you can do some crazy things with the spinning top.  Look it up on youtube.  It has taken some practice but now i can pick up the top and balance it in my hand. cool right?  But our friends were really nice and now we talk to them for a little every time we pass.  That is how we get through to the hearts of the parents. through the children. 

We did watch all of the conference sessions. Awesome!!! I loved conference.  Member Missionary work. Amazing. Victoria our investigator went to all of the sessions! The talk President Uchtdorf gave in the sat. morning session was directly to her.  It was awesome.  I did get to watch it in English which was nice.  English is so beautiful.  

The language is rough.  I can not understand what they are saying!  When i tell them to slow down and talk clearer then i can but i don't get why they cant just talk like a regular Latino.  It is so slurred and abbreviated that some words are almost unrecognizable.  its insane.  But ill get it eventually. I have faith.  

I think that is all....I have some stories but they are too long to tell right now. When i get home ill tell you every thing that happened.  i love all of you guys so much. Take care of izzy. tell her hi fo me.  

Love, 

Elder Paco Borup

This is a picture of me with the El Estanque. the name sake for our sector

This is me with our cactus that we bought a couple of weeks ago.  His name is Carlito.  That is a cut out of Noah that we have put in his pot.

 Buenos dias

Best Week Ever

Hola hola!  Hows every one doing? sounds like you are doing great, sounds like the primary program was wonderful. Every one excited for general conference? Well you should be. Its going to be awesome.  This week was one of the best weeks of the mission. I have had the sponge bob song the best day ever stuck in my head all week.  We found an Investigator!!!!

So the week started out with something called an invasion.  It is when all of the elders from an entire zone invade one sector and do contacts like crazy people.  This time they went into our sector because we have been struggling for the past month.  But it worked amazingly we have a huge list of awesome people that we still need to contact.  

 on Thursday We went into the Poblacion Pablo Neruda.  It is the rougher part of our sector, but while we were in there we helped a blind man tare apart this huge rotting chair and then after that we were walking past this house and saw this lady crying outside.  She had her face pressed up against the gate and she was just bawling.  But we asked what was wrong.  She then proceeded to direct us into her house.  When we went in she told us how she was just about to go and kill her husband and if it hadn't been for us she would have done it.  So talk about being in the right place at the right time. I know that the spirit directed us to that place at that exact time.

This Sunday was the money day though.  We just got to church and we were starting to greet people.  ( i don't have that much more time).  But a super active guy came up to us and told us that his daughter is going to be coming to church today and that she wants to learn more about the church.  She is awesome. Pray for her.  Her name is Victoria.

Love you guys a ton. next week i'll send some pics. no time.

Love, 

Elder Steamer